Y Pwyllgor Safonau Ymddygiad/
Standards of Conduct Committee

SoC(5)-06-17 PTN2

Code of Conduct for Public Affairs
Cymru

Mission Statement of Public Affairs
Cymru

Established in October 2006 Public Affairs Cymru (PAC) is a
membership organisation for public affairs professionals in Wales.
Members come from a wide variety of backgrounds – commercial
public affairs agencies, PR companies, the voluntary sector, trade
associations, advocacy groups and professional bodies who all share
a common desire to ensure that public affairs and lobbying
activities are undertaken professionally and responsibly.

Public Affairs Cymru recognises that lobbying and public affairs
activity is an entirely legitimate and a vital part of Welsh
democracy and its members are committed to:

• Safeguarding the reputation of the public affairs
profession;

• Encouraging best practice amongst public affairs
professionals;

• Promoting wherever possible the work of public affairs
professionals operating in Wales

The Code of Professional Conduct

For the purposes of this Code of Professional Conduct, lobbying is
defined as: “All activity associated with representing the
interests of a client, employer or organisation as regards any
matter of public policy. This includes the provision of information
and advice, as well as the actual advocacy of a point of
view.”

All members of PAC are expected to behave in accordance with this
Code and to ensure that they meet all its provisions in their
professional activity. The most important benefit attached to
compliance with the terms of the Code of Professional Conduct is
that the lobbying/government relations/public affairs profession in
Wales will both be professional and ethical, and seen by others as
being professional and ethical. That is of inestimable value to all
practitioners, in whose interest it is that policy makers and the
public alike perceive their profession as reputable, legitimate and
of a high standard.

From May 2017 PAC has created a new membership system whereby every
member of PAC, both Full members and Associate members, must sign
the Code on an annual basis as part of the joining process with
individuals signing a copy of the Code when they become a member of
PAC. A full list of PAC members will be published on the PAC
website. PAC undertakes to review the Code on an annual basis at
our Annual General Meeting.

Full members of PAC (not associate members) are expected to comply
by the following standards of Professional Conduct:

1.
Members of PAC are expected to take care to ensure that none of
their professional activities or behaviour causes, or has the
potential to cause, damage to the reputation of PAC itself or to
their profession more generally.

2.
Members are expected to deal with clients, employers, organisations
and all the institutions of government honestly, transparently and
with integrity.

3.
Members are expected to take reasonable steps to establish that
information supplied by them to clients, employers and
organisations or to public office-holders and press is factually
accurate and honest. Members are expected to not knowingly mislead
elected public office holders, their staff or officials.

4.
Members are expected to observe a positive duty in all their
professional dealings to disclose the identity of their client,
employer or organisation and to be open in providing other
information when requested (within the normal boundaries of
commercial confidentiality). Any PAC member which routinely sells
public affairs commercial services (excepting trade or
representatives bodies) will lodge a publicly available list of
clients with PAC.

5.
Members are expected to advise their client, employer or
organisation if they believe that the objectives or activities of
their client, employer or organisation may be unethical, illegal or
contrary to good professional practice and not to take action to
further such objectives or activities.

6. Members are expected to ensure that any financial relationships
involved in their professional dealings could not reasonably be
construed as being potentially illegal or dishonest.

7. Members are expected to provide information on the cost and
value of hospitality provided to public office-holders if the
public office-holders concerned request such information.

8. Members are expected to take care to keep entirely separate, and
to be seen to do so, their professional activities and
responsibilities and their personal and individual membership of,
and involvement in, political parties, pressure groups, related
organisations and other political causes.

9. Members are expected to neither hold nor seek to obtain
permanent passes which confer entitlement to access (or other
privileges) to elected public office holders, their staff or
officials for use. No Full member of PAC is allowed to hold a pass
to the Assembly in any capacity.

10. Members are expected, while in the National Assembly for Wales,
Welsh Government or any other parliamentary or governmental
building to observe the rules and procedures of that institution.
Any PAC member which routinely sells public affairs commercial
services will respect the National Assembly as an institution and
undertake not to use the Assembly estate as a marketing initiative
either by direct company marketing or attending events
speculatively with the purpose of attracting new clients.

11. In relation to the process of drafting manifestos, members will
not exploit their roles within a political party, nor indeed their
membership of a political party, to seek advantage for those for
whom they lobby or represent professionally.